Donald Trump explains SNL hate: 'It's a terrible show'

Speaking to Matt Lauer on Wednesday’s episode of the TODAY show, the president-elect said the late-night comedy series is “terrible” and called Alec Baldwin’s Trump impersonation “mean-spirited” and “biased.”

“Well, I hosted SNL when it was a good show, but it’s not a good show anymore,” Trump, who hosted the show just last year, told Lauer. “Nothing to do with me — there’s nothing funny about it. The skits are terrible. I mean, I like Alec, but his imitation of me is really mean-spirited and not very good. I don’t think it’s good. I do like him, and I like him as an actor, but I don’t think his imitation of me gets me at all. And it’s meant to be very mean-spirited, which is very biased. I don’t like it. So I can tweet that out.”

Trump has tweeted about the last two live episodes of Saturday Night Live, bashing the show via Twitter for its portrayal of him. Over the weekend, Trump complained about a sketch focused on his tweets, by tweeting, “Just tried watching Saturday Night Live – unwatchable! Totally biased, not funny and the Baldwin impersonation just can’t get any worse. Sad.”

On Wednesday, Lauer asked Trump if he should stop watching SNL. “Frankly, the way the show is going now — and you look at the kind of work they’re doing — who knows how long that show is going to be on? It’s a terrible show,” the president-elect said.

After winning the election in November, Trump said in an interview that he would be “very restrained” on Twitter if he used it at all. Since becoming president-elect, however, Trump has blasted SNL, the cast of Hamilton, and the New York Times, among other cultural institutions. Asked about his usage by Lauer, Trump reiterated that he felt it was “very restrained.”

“I talk about important things,” he said. “I talk about, you know, as you know, recently, China. We talked about their devaluation, we talked about they’re building this massive military fortress in the middle of the South China Sea. Which they’re not supposed to be doing and other things.”

Trump added, “Frankly, it’s a modern day form of communication. Between Facebook and Twitter, I have, I guess, more than 40 million people. That’s a modern day form of communication. I get it out much faster than a press release. I get it out much more honestly than dealing with dishonest reporters because so many reporters are dishonest.”